Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has said the country's military should elaborate more on how it shot down a passenger plane by mistake last week.

Separately, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged that Iranians "were lied to" for days afterwards.

He insisted that he and the president were also kept in the dark.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards killed 176 people when they "unintentionally" shot down the Ukrainian aircraft amid escalating tensions with the US.

Hours before, Iranian missiles had targeted two airbases in Iraq housing US forces.

Speaking on state television on Wednesday, President Rouhani called on the military to take the next steps of the investigation with "more coordination and monitoring".

"The first thing is to inform people honestly. People's grief will alleviate when they know that we feel responsible for what happened and talk with them honestly," he said.

He urged the forces "to explain to people what sessions and meetings were held since the moment that the incident happened".

Mr Zarif, during a televised interview while on a trip to India, said: "I and the president did not know [what brought the plane down] and, as soon as we did, we communicated it."

BBC